TO:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
Bruce Moe, City Manager
FROM:
Patrick Griffin, Interim Information Technology Director
Tatyana Roujenova-Peltekova, Senior Management Analyst
SUBJECT:Title
Consideration of Approving a Budgeted Purchase with Insight Public Sector for a Core Switch Replacement and a Core Switch Failover for a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $80,570 (Interim Information Technology Director Griffin).
A) WAIVE FORMAL BIDDING DUE TO COOPERATIVE PURCHASING
B) APPROVE
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council:
a) Waive formal bid requirements pursuant to Manhattan Beach Municipal Code Section 2.36.150 (cooperative purchasing); and
b) Approve a budgeted purchase with Insight Public Sector for a core switch replacement and a core switch failover for a not-to-exceed amount of $80,570.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Sufficient funds for this purchase are included in the current Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Information Technology budget. The total amount of $80,570 includes $76,733 for the replacement and failover systems (hardware, software/licenses, extended care/support services) and a 5% contingency ($3,837) for unexpected additional project expenses such as hardware, software/licensing. Annual maintenance costs will be included in future budgets accordingly.
BACKGROUND:
As part of the budget process, the City Council approved the funding for the core switch replacement and the redundant core switch. The current core switch has to be replaced since it is over 10 years old. Currently, the City relies on a third-party support provider due to the end-of-support on some of the system’s components. The core switch is the foundation of the network, and it typically is refreshed every five to ten years contingent on the used switch and the changing business needs.
Since the City departments rely on enterprise systems (e.g. Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Permitting) for providing services to the public, there is a greater demand for network performance and reliability. The implementation of an additional core switch ensures network availability and addresses a single point of system failure.
DISCUSSION:
The core switch is a high-capacity switch positioned in the center of the backbone network. It serves as the gateway to a wide area network(WAN) or the Internet, providing the final collection point for the network. This switch also interconnects the edge/area low-capacity switches by directing all the network traffic and connecting locations, buildings, servers, and computers. The functioning of the core switch is crucial to the network. If the core switch fails, City users lose the ability to connect to the City's network, Internet, and City systems.
The existing core switch replacement and an additional fault-tolerance core switch budgeted purchase include hardware, software/licensing, and extended care/support services. The core switch refresh accounts for the changes and growth in the network requirements for present and future needs. Since the City is expanding aggressively the use of automated systems and access to cloud applications, securing the core switch functionality is of the essence. Implementing a redundant switch ensures the City network operability and/or rapid network services recovery if the primary core switch fails due to a technical malfunction or cybersecurity threat. The failover switch addition improves the cybersecurity posture, strengthens the current network, and removes a single point of failure from a network infrastructure perspective.
Cooperative Purchasing
The proposed solution was chosen after a thorough review of industry-proven technology options in the context of the City network requirements. The selected hardware is only purchased through resellers and Insight provided the pricing based on the OMNIA Partners IT Products and Services cooperative purchasing contract No. 4400006644. All of OMNIA’s cooperative purchasing contracts are solicited competitively and publicly awarded by a lead agency based on the respective procurement regulations. OMNIA has numerous Information Technology Cooperative Contracts that ensure technology products are offered for the right price.
In conclusion, staff recommends that the City Council: a) waive formal bid requirements pursuant to Manhattan Beach Municipal Code Section 2.36.150 (cooperative purchasing), and b) approve a budgeted purchase with Insight Public Sector for a core switch replacement and failover systems for a not-to-exceed amount of $80,570. If the purchase is approved, the project implementation is planned for the fall.
PUBLIC OUTREACH:
After analysis, staff determined that public outreach was not required for this issue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW:
The City has determined that the proposed activity qualifies for an exemption pursuant to State CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3), the common sense exemption (formerly the “general rule”) that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. Where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question can have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA, as is the case with the purchase of core switch replacement and failover systems.
LEGAL REVIEW:
The City Attorney has approved the agreement as to form.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Quotation - Insight Public Sector